March 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) –A young Chinese woman repeatedly pressured by her mother-in-law to abort a succession of female unborn children died from internal bleeding after her ninth abortion.
According to the Peoples Daily Online, a “Mrs. Chen” from Guangdong province had given birth to three live daughters but no sons, and when she and her husband persistently conceived females the mother-in-law insisted they all be aborted.
Last summer, reported the London Daily Mail, the woman was pregnant with another girl and again underwent an abortion. But “because of the number of abortions she had, the wall of her uterus was too thin and she suffered excessive bleeding during the procedure,” and died, according to the paper. News of her death was first reported only last week by the People’s Daily News and the Global Times, both sponsored by the Chinese Communist regime.
According to the Mail, “The case has prompted large discussion on the internet in China with more than 14 million people weighing in.” Most comments are critical of the mother-in-law and her husband.
The Epoch Times, an outlet founded by members of the Falun Gong group strongly critical of the government, described Mrs. Chen’s death as a tragic consequence of the Chinese Communist regime’s “draconian population control measures” and traditional Chinese “preference for the male.”
China’s infamous population control policies has resulted in many brutally enforced abortions of second, third and fourth unborn children, especially if female, due to the Chinese tradition that firstborn males care for aging parents.
The “one-child” policy was inaugurated in the 1970s at the height of world hysteria about overpopulation but according to some reports never applied to more than half the population, with exceptions for certain ethnic groups, cities and underpopulated areas.
At the beginning of this year, it was officially replaced by the “two-child” policy.
The government claimed the policy prevented 400 million babies through contraception and abortion and enabled China’s economic success. Critics note that the policy caused the abortion of tens of millions of unborn girls, causing trauma and bitterness in families and a serious imbalance in the sexes.
Correction: This story originally said the Epoch Times was published by Falun Gong and described this movement as pro-abortion. In fact, the paper was founded by Falun Gong members but is not owned by the movement. Moreover, Falun Gong’s founder, Li Hongzhi, has said abortion is wrong in his teachings. However, scholar Noah Porter claimed in his book Falun Gong in the United States: An Ethnographic Study that Falun Gong is “pro-choice” in practice, believing “someone must chose for themselves between right and wrong, so they would prefer to allow people to discover ‘the truth’ rather than force others to do what they believe is the right thing.” As such it has opposed the Chinese government’s practice of “forced abortions” on women pregnant with second or third children.